You are not more important than your country.

“Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”

I have always liked this quote but my positive feelings towards it only increase as the years go by and the Left tries more and more to dismantle all that has been carefully built up over time. This morning we awake to an internet gone mad over Trump’s order to temporarily ban entry status to the US from a handful of Muslim majority countries. (Note that the order was not to ban Muslims as is being widely reported in the fake news outlets.)

The protests range across two broad lines. The first is that the implementation has been awful and not worthy of a government anywhere. Primarily it is poorly implemented because it affects people adversely who have been inadvertently caught in the middle. For example, people traveling to the US while the document was signed.

This protestation ties into the second broad line which is the negative impact that the ban has on individuals across the world. Just a brief look at any news site will reward you with a vast array of articles competing with each other as to who can discover the most hard done by story. Meanwhile the Left gnashes its teeth and wails to the non-existent heavens that this is further proof that Trump is literally Hitler.

The USA has been suffering terrorist attacks on its home soil since the late nineties and the bombing of the World Trade center. Almost twenty years later there is still no end in sight and every tactic that has been tried so far has largely failed. It is a war where one side is nebulous and hard to pin down. Trump campaigned on the promise of doing exactly what he is doing right now. A lot of people have been taken aback by this development precisely because of the extremely poor record of politicians delivering on their promises. But Trump is no ordinary politician.

In times of war nations have to make difficult decisions. The reason that this situation has gone on for so long is due to the fact that these hard decisions have largely been avoided. Now some sacrifices need to be made for the good of the nation. In such times the nation comes before the individual. To think otherwise is the height of folly and selfishness. People are screeching that this situation is incredibly unfair. On the other hand, some of us consider it unfair to be blown to smithereens or gunned down while going about our daily lives.

Ironically enough a number of examples of those loudly complaining about the ban are people who are not even citizens of the United States, such as British athlete Mo Farah:

“I am a British citizen who has lived in America for the past six years — working hard, contributing to society, paying my taxes and bringing up our four children in the place they now call home.

“Now, me and many others like me are being told that we may not be welcome.

“It’s deeply troubling that I will have to tell my children that Daddy might not be able to come home — to explain why the President has introduced a policy that comes from a place of ignorance and prejudice.’’

Mo may call it home but the reality demonstrates otherwise. He is a British citizen which means he is at best a guest of the USA. The idea that national security should be neglected for the benefit of a foreign national is simply not justifiable. It is indeed prejudice – a prejudice in favor of a nation’s own citizens and their lives and safety. Mo can contribute as much as he likes but demanding that this be given precedence over the lives of US citizens is ignorant in the extreme.

But the Left are masters at the art of ignorance. I caught this on Facebook last night:

That was posted by a fifty year old man. I leave it up to my sharp-eyed readers to identify all of the falsehoods contained in that statement, (although I do particularly like the claim that this is not about Christianity versus Islam).

But what he says at the end betrays the Left’s hollowness. They want to be seen as being on the side of “good”. Even though this man is in his fifties he still believes in a world of goodies and baddies. At least when we were playing cops and robbers in the playground the kids playing the cops didn’t prance around crowing about how they were on the side of good. It is a clear example of mental regression into adulthood.

The Left live for the outside world. They care not what is happening but how the world will perceive their attitudes to events. The Right take the view of reacting to events based on the reality of the situation. Mike Cernovich’s family are personally affected by the ban as his wife is Persian. But there is no complaining from Mike. He is mature enough to understand that whatever personal hardship his family may suffer, the ban has been enacted for the good of the nation.

15 thoughts on “You are not more important than your country.”

There is an interesting parallel with Kiwi criminals being kicked out of Australia. The sudden shock for them that they are still subject to immigration despite often living in Australia since childhood doesn’t overcome the fact, as they were not citizens, they have none of the rights accorded citizens.

Being in the US on a green card, or H1-B or whatever is the same. They can be revoked on a moments notice.

No-one has an unqualified right to enter a foreign country. Moreover, those who come from countries that are not part of Western civilisation, should be kept out in order that they may not foul the indigenous and prevailing culture – for a unified culture is essential to the concept of a nation. The Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed) of nineteen hundred-and-twenty -four was intended to restore and maintain cultural balance, after the immigration that had taken place at the end of the nineteenth century. There were earlier bills as well, drawn up for a similar purpose.

I do not love the quotation from Kennedy: as a libertarian (and there are various ways of being a libertarian, e.g. clearly I do not believe in: ‘open borders’), I find it disquieting, as it requires the individual to sacrifice himself to the government in power. A country is a land mass; it is a culture; it is a unified people. It is not a group of politicians, riding on the backs of the population. Remember, the decline of the past nearly sixty years, began with Kennedy.

I get what you’re saying about the quote but I tend to think of a nation being the people, not the government. Unfortunately we have let government become so large that people no longer feel the bond of nationhood. This is yet another symptom of the decline of civilization.

I largely agree with Carl-Edward; although Kennedy was an inspiring political figure to many, and certainly had the guts to face down a savage dictator re Cuban missiles, he DID begin the leftist rot that has steadily brought an otherwise great nation low.

I’m on the Left, but I’m shocked by the reaction of the press to this. Trump is clearly doing what he promised to do, which I respect, even if I think he’s making a terrible mistake. What I think my fellow lefties have got completely wrong, throughout their reporting on and discussion of Trump, is that they think that he cares what they say.

Trump doesn’t care that a few Muslims are disadvantaged by his ban. Even if they are US allies, or ex-agents, his view is that this is just tough. Hand wringing by us bleeding heart yoghurt knitters about a few families broken up will not make him think he’s wrong, nor will the people who supported him care overmuch.

Likewise, all that stuff about lying about the size of the crowds at his inauguration. He doesn’t care. None of his voters care. The left holding it up as some kind of journalistic coup simply don’t understand his mode of operation, or his motives.

My issue with all of this is that the real effects of Trump’s ban will be hard to measure. How do you measure the empirical effect of a lack of trust in America worldwide. How do you measure the empirical effect of the economic weakening of an insular and paranoid state. I think Trump’s policy will hurt America more than it helps. I think it will cost US lives. But I can’t prove that, and I can’t even work out how to start. That is the problem of the left with Trump – that we can’t prove he’s wrong – and I don’t think many of us on the left realise our problem.

You’ve overlooked the fact that Trump’s supporters are CHEERING everytime he does something that causes the media to have a hissy fit – which is just about everything he does.
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The US is NOT going to be negatively affected by putting its own interests first – the very idea is ridiculous. Running a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with the rest of the world WILL eventually destroy the US. It’s done enough damage already.

I’m not sure what “feelbadz” is. I believe in free trade, and closing borders and withdrawing from the world will, I think, make the US poorer and therefore me poorer by extension, but that’s hard to measure in the general context of US relative economic decline. Is that “feelbadz”?

For example for every shiny new factory with new jobs that Trump cajoles into staying in the US by bullying the CEO, I think that more US jobs will be lost in supply chain companies that export to Mexico and China. I think the world is in a period of increasing technology and automation, and that old fashioned blue collar and white collar jobs are disappearing. Neither right or left politicians have an answer to that. Perhaps that’s what you mean by “feelbadz”.

Some of the things Trump proposes, including on the tax code, for example, are good policies. Despite the media caricature he’s not an idiot and has some good ideas. He’s also thick skinned enough not to care that a lot of people hate him, which is a good trait in a politician.

My issue with all of this is that the real effects of Trump’s ban will be hard to measure. How do you measure the empirical effect of a lack of trust in America worldwide.

You have correctly identified that Trump and his supporters do not care what anyone thinks of them. This is shocking to leftists because they are discovering that they have no power over people who don’t care what they think. Now you need to go one step further. America under Trump does not care what the world thinks of it. Once again, this is a liberating move for the exact same reasons.

As an American who voted for Trump, I’m on board with some of what he is doing. My greatest joy is seeing the leftist trash have fits of rage and violence (despite their alleged love of peaceful protest) at every turn. I have international friends but I”m all for a heavy restriction of those from non Western countries or a non Western mindset or just plain failed societies or cultures. We have enough of our own worthless population to deal with right now.

I won’t like everything he does, but it’s nice to have a president show up at a football and tell Americans we are a good people. At least Melania won’t visit overseas and say how she is finally proud to be an American.

I do hope Trump keeps us out of much military conflict which has been our Achilles heel. We really need to stay home and mind our own damn business, but as you know, most of us are peons like you who go to work and pay our bills which is our main concern.